How I Got Here: Merrill Lynch's Buck Wiley

Kate Abbott

October 2, 2012, 10:31 AM EDT

Photograph by Jin Lee/Bloomberg

It took Buck Wiley a while to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. After earning an undergraduate degree in European history from Washington and Lee University, a relatively small school in Lexington, Va., he moved on to the much larger University of Georgia, where he added a JD/MBA to his résumé. Then, believing he might want to pursue a career in public service, Wiley headed to Europe to pursue an LLM in international law from the University of Brussels. Ultimately he landed in the world of finance, spending six years at two firms in Moscow before returning to his native Atlanta, where he now works as a private wealth adviser for Merrill Lynch. As part of Bloomberg Businessweek’s “How I Got Here” series, Kate Abbott spoke with Wiley about his experiences in the financial sector abroad. What follows is the story of Wiley’s career progression, in his own words. (Some quotes have been edited for space and clarity.)

Buck Wiley

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